Instructions for a Scene

written and performed by Mark Butcher as part of the Whitstable Biennale 2008

An empty auditorium and stage

A community hall on a Sunday afternoon. Preparations for a play.
A director. A scene under rehearsal. A struggle toward utopia.
An attempt to outrun history, powered by an ever-changing series of actors.

Performance

A scene from a play is rehearsed over and over again by a ‘director’ (the artist) and an ever-changing group of ‘actors’ (the participants). The scene is for two characters involved in an armed revolutionary struggle. Participants are free to come and go, they can watch from the auditorium or take to the stage when instructed by the ‘director’.

Commentary

Instructions for a Wake mixes together a seaside town, a revolution, play-acting and firearms. The script is a mixture of community theatre and agit-prop, strange, silly but disturbingly serious… It asks the audience up on to the stage, puts a gun in their hands and wonders if they can make it believable.